To: helpdesk@kernel.org

Dear Linux devs,
I am writing to you about a new feature request for the linux kernel. Since more people are switching to linux(because windows 11 is garbage) some games just don't work (because they require kernel level plugins for anticheat).

To encourage gamers to switch I was wondering if you guys can add a translation layer plugin in the kernel (like Wine IS Not an Emulator (WINE for short)). It can be built as a module and be installed via package manager like apt, pacman, dnf, etc.

I do hope to see something like this and hope that linux would be able to run Windows games on Linux.

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So, anyone busy this holiday season? Shouldn't be too hard.

@monsieuricon uhhhh

maybe im missing smth but there wouldn't actually be any benefits to putting wine in the kernel rather than just in userspace ?

@monsieuricon until we have proper secure enclave, FDE and everything else that windows provide to ensure that a game can check that nothing has been modified, I don't think we can do much.

It's just not a kernel feature, it requires a whole environment that ensures that somewhat all the code is being run in a trusted place (including the wine side).

@monsieuricon not even Windows puts entire Win32 in the kernel and run the subsystem in userspace.

@monsieuricon The purpose of anti-cheat is to prove that you haven't tampered your system in certain ways, yet Linux is FOSS and allows you to do "basically anything". The game developer would need to be able to execute code on the user's computer in a way that prevents user's control of their own computer.

On the face of it I don't see how Linux is compatible with that, and I'm not really a fan of introducing & normalizing such a mechanism either.

@monsieuricon Valve are cash-money incentivised to facilitate this, so much so that I would be surprised if they haven't been working on a solution with vendors behind closed doors already. There's really no way to "emulate" Windows kernel anti-cheat, it would have to be a new system, but it's not like it isn't an obvious roadblock to Linux gaming adoption, which Valve want

@monsieuricon The fun thing is that when I was on windows I always noped out when a game would require kernel level anti cheat. Never played Valorant for example. And there were games with good cheat detection even before kernel level anti cheat. I don't think it's needed. It just makes things easier.

@SRAZKVT @monsieuricon I've heard they got some performance improvements out of it.

@monsieuricon should be easy to vibe code this in Rust compiled to eBPF

@vbabka @monsieuricon may i suggest pouring gasoline over it and setting it on fire instead

@piggo @vbabka @monsieuricon

We'll, since impossible to make any errors at all in Rust and since AI is soooo much better than humans, this seems like a more than perfect idea!

@monsieuricon hello elon,